How Would You Defend A Mountain Fortress?

[mmadsen]

i think hannibal did this rather well when he marched down from gaul to attack rome from the north while going over the mountains.

I like John Warry's comments on this in Warfare in the Classical World: The march over the Alps makes epic reading; even in Livy's hostile narrative, Hannibal emerges as its hero -- rather like Satan in Militon's Paradise Lost.

Anyway, it appears that Hannibal lost one quarter of his force during the march. That's not good. And I believe he lost almost all his elephants. (You think it's daring to march your men over the Alps?)

 

[mmadsen]

Also if you were a smart commander and the valoreans left a trail of bodies behind them, the easiest solution for this is to start raising the dead secretly and then harry the rear with troops as you come from the castle in a strategic strike to surround and envelop the enemy.

Would that even slow down a force full of high-level Clerics? And can Zombies even catch up to a marching army? I guess they don't have to stop and rest...

 

[mmadsen]

1) Don't worry about the enemy mooks. If all the mooks are killed they could still win with the higher level dudes.

It certainly seems that way. They could certainly assassinate our leaders.

2) Since the Valorians are so dependant on magic maybe they have a weakness to mundane infiltration. Disguised assassins. Try just sneaking in disguised.

I was thinking the same thing. I was also thinking of using magical illusions in reverse. That is, cast doubt on the sentries by putting illusions over normal Valloreans as they enter camp. Everyone else sees the sentry letting in a furtive Vampire or Werewolf, while he's just doing his job -- correctly.

3) Target the enemy Clerics. You must destroy their healers and those who can cast Raise Dead and Ressurection.

A given.

4) Target the other high level powerful creatures. Come up with a way to kill them so that they cannot be raised and hopefully not be ressurected.

Easier said than done -- the killing part, that is. Taking the corpse or animating it (via Animate Dead) should prevent resurrection though, right?

5) Try to capture and reuse as much of the Valorian magic items as possible.

This came up in another discussion of the Vallorean legions. In real life, Spartacus and his men ambushed some legions and came out fully equipped. Imagine what all those magic MRE packs are worth...

6) Use hit and run tactics...

Since spells recover daily, and since magical healing is so easy, how much good does a non-decisive guerrilla strike really do? Magic items (and their charges) seem hardest to recover.

7) Magically secure your fortress from teleport. But leave some holes in the defense with some nasty traps.

I'm interested to see how real, live players react to such holes in the defense. Will they notice them? Will they suspect a trap?

8) Mix up your forces. A well balanced strike team will do alot better than one of all vampires.

A good general principle, but does it hold? What troops mix well with Vampires?

 

[Leopold]

I like John Warry's comments on this in Warfare in the Classical World: The march over the Alps makes epic reading; even in Livy's hostile narrative, Hannibal emerges as its hero -- rather like Satan in Militon's Paradise Lost.

Anyway, it appears that Hannibal lost one quarter of his force during the march. That's not good. And I believe he lost almost all his elephants. (You think it's daring to march your men over the Alps?)

never read the book but in the end doesn't hannibal still defeat the romans?

 

[Zenon]

The army regulars (mooks) are important to attack-

High level opponents WILL be brought back. No doubt about it. They will be Raised, Ressurected, etc. There's no way the Valloreans will leave that much experience and combat firepower go to waste. Assaults on the high level opponents will generate high-level losses on your side.

Not every mook can have the same done for them, especially if the bodies are taken/mangled/etc. The XP drain on the clerics is too high to be able to do this for everybody.

Morale will begin to falter: "What do you mean High Lord Muckety-muck got brought back from the dead?!??!! I've been losing men all week in these damnable raids! What if I die next? I don't want to die, I won't get the chance to come back! Don't they care about us?"

An army needs infantry to hold ground. If the Valloreans roll up to the gates with only their high-level guys, they may be able to take the fortress, but won't be able to hold the countryside or protect supply lines.

By Agback:
The dictionaries after a time admit common misuses, but there is no reason why you should. In a language with a range of meaning from 'scotch' to 'annihilate', there is no good reason to say 'decimate' when you mean 'kill'.

Sorry, it's the way I've always used it or heard it used. I actually didn't know until I looked at Webster. Well, learn something new every day...

[poke polite fun with no offense meant ON]
I'll take it for what it's worth to be lectured in the use of acceptable and/or common usage English by someone from a continent where the common greeting is a contraction ("G'day!")
[poke polite fun with no offense meant OFF]

 

[mmadsen]

An army needs infantry to hold ground. If the Valloreans roll up to the gates with only their high-level guys, they may be able to take the fortress, but won't be able to hold the countryside or protect supply lines.

Even with infantry, can you hold ground and protect supply lines when the enemy has teleporting commandos?

 

[mmadsen]

With the general control of the cities in the Occupied Territories, the Valloreans...began to form defenses and preparations to make the countryside deadly for enemy forces, particularly for vampires, undead, and werewolves.

What kind of "preparations" did they make? What makes the countryside deadly for vampires, undead, and werewolves?

 

[Zenon]

Even with infantry, can you hold ground and protect supply lines when the enemy has teleporting commandos?

Yes. Remember, this isn't standard infantry. These are "magic walkie-talkie" equipped troopies. If an assault happens, they're calling in fire support (their own high level guys) and fighting delaying actions and attempting to obstruct us from completing our goals unopposed. They also have to be present to man the fortress and occupy the 10 miles or so of surrounding territories. I meant Epic-level characters are good, but they can't be everywhere at once (or can they? I better check the ELH again...).

The infantry are also heavily magic equipped. Just let one of these low level guys have a wand of Dimensional Anchor and the True Strike spell, and somebody might not make it back when everyone else leaves.

The other thing to look at is how the Valloreans attack. Do they go after the army or after the high level opponents? Is their strategy effective? If so, it on them and see what defenses they come up with then duplicate them.

The problem is that the Valloreans have an "unlimited" (in a manner of speaking) amount of gold to throw at every problem to solve it. We need to either capture or destroy those high priced supplies before they get to the troops.

 

[Zenon]

What kind of "preparations" did they make? What makes the countryside deadly for vampires, undead, and werewolves?

Ditto. Is there a way to turn whatever they're doing to our advantage? Is there a flaw in their plan?

 

[Leopold]

i completely forgot about this..


Can't the high level priests gate in demons, devils, and other infernal allies? I am sure that getting together they can summon a nice duke from hell who would be more than happy to open the gates from hell and have a nice legion poor out into the masses. We are talking about 40+ level casters here that can open the planes of hell up for all to see and have the scores of demons, devils, and other wicked creatures that go bump in the night come and fight for them.

Promise them the bodies of the dead and the souls of those they kill and I assure you that they will welcome the army with maws wide open!